A new round of tidbits and links about transportation! If you have any items to suggest, or a photo to showcase on these posts, e-mail me at thebuzzer@translink.ca! I really need good photos. I’m not going to lie.

Again, thanks so much for your patience with my blog pace these days, as there are still those long-term, non-blog projects I’m working on. Le sigh…

• Above is the new promotional video for the Presto Card, the new Ontario transit smartcard. What do you guys think of it?
• Tidbit passed on by eagle eye Tim Choi: he’s noticed older buses are slowly getting their “MW CHK” messages replaced by “NIS”, finally! Older New Flyers with green letters have NIS on the number area both at the front and back, whereas the slightly less old New Flyers with orange letters have NIS only on the back display. (For those wondering: MW CHK stands for “Message Writer Check” and is just a default message on the displays. NIS stands for Not In Service!) Somebody send me a photo if you spot these in the wild.
• Another TransLink tidbit that happened while I was away: we will be moving our head offices to New Westminster in 2013.
• Edit: Oh, and we have put out a request for proposals, seeking a contractor for a business case for an SFU gondola! Here is an article from CTV about it.
• David from Calgary Transit passed along the route animation for Calgary’s new West LRT line, which is currently under construction. All together now: Oooh! Ahh!
• Another Dave has sent along two concepts from his ideas blog for trains: an underwater train, and an amoeba train.
• Super crazy video compiling how some lucky people have narrowly avoided road crash incidents. YIKES!
• Jason Vanderhill passed along two links: Salon points out how rail project work in California has long depended on China, and BoingBoing links to the troubled smartcard implementation in Washington, D.C.
• Discovered on my internet travels: HoDee, MTR’s origami rabbit mascot, who encourages riders to be considerate! Can anyone tell me if HoDee is still a current character, or any more interesting things about him? Some of the HoDee links don’t work so I am concerned he is no longer being used :)
• A British town aims to slow drivers down by planting trees that create an optical illusion.
• The Vancouver edition of MyBikeLane.com spotlights cars parked in our local bicycle lanes.
• Why do trolleys need two wires? Gordon Price explains with an excerpt from a Human Transit post.
• Brandon asks is better transit a money problem? over at his blog, Masters Planning.
• The second Amtrak train between Vancouver and Washington State will be cancelled, as the Canadian Border Services agency has asked for fees of half a million dollars for the customs costs. Here’s a Seattle Times article, a post from Frances Bula, and a post from Transport Action BC.
• This Mass Transit blog post highlights a weird American transit issue: apparently federally funded transit agencies can’t provide shuttle service for large public events, if private carriers are willing to bid on the business? Although there’s been some flip flopping on whether that is still going to be the case.
• BART reports that they are looking at revenue generating ad proposals, to help offset a projected $7.5 billion capital funding deficit over the next 30 years.
• Jarrett Walker posted an item about Lego’s new public transportation kits that have apparently sent the Human Transit pageviews soaring.
• Finally, over at The Source, L.A. Metro’s blog, there’s an interesting series on why people don’t ride transit. Also, they put up a post about how to load your bike on a bus, in reference to my post last week :D